In Spring 1932, the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) opened a garage in Guildford at the end of the residential Leas Road. Backing on to the River Wey (which has on occasions flowed through the depot!), it’s a handy central location a stone’s throw from today’s Friary Bus Station. Later coming under the control of London Country Bus Services in 1970, deregulation saw the divvied up London Country South West pass through the hands of Drawlane (1988) and British Bus (1992), with vehicles wearing the bold London Country two town green with red stripe livery and carrying ‘Guildford & West Surrey’ fleet names. Cowie acquired British Bus in 1996 and rebranded the following year as Arriva.
Around six months shy of the garage reaching the 90th anniversary of its opening, October 2021 saw Arriva make the announcement that they were proposing to close Leas Road and cease operations in Surrey, this coming to fruition after the close of service on the night of 17th December. In the very early hours of the following morning, Mercedes-Benz Citaro 3901 (BX56 VTU) arrived in Guildford after working the 23:08 Camberley to Guildford route 34 journey. It seemed like it was the end of the road for Leas Road, and that the long talked about redevelopment of the site may well now be able to go ahead.
It soon became apparent that it wasn’t quite the end though, as the site appeared up for an auction in February 2022 on the website of property consultancy Allsop. Interestingly though, alongside the stats of an area “0.376 hectares (0.928 acres)” in size and its possible potential for redevelopment, there was a caveat that “The Seller has Agreed Terms to Lease the site to Stagecoach for a term of 3 years (with a Landlord’s Break Option after 2 years) at a rent of £120,000 per annum. The Lease is due to be signed prior to the auction date”. Stagecoach moved in and primarily operated Woking area routes 34, 35, 47 and 91 from Leas Road (plus initially local circular 6 which was at the time interworked with the 34/35), as well as the lone morning 28 journey which becomes a 91 at Knaphill Sainsbury’s and more recently the RHS Garden Wisley shuttle bus service recently taken over from Woking Community Transport on 29th March this year. The workshops were also put to good use for maintenance of the fleet, these being particularly handy as the building at Stagecoach’s existing Guildford premises in Peasmarsh was unable to fit double deck vehicles inside. Latterly, Stagecoach’s London & South East operator licence (PK0002571) has shown an allowance of up to 35 vehicles at Leas Road and 45 at Peasmarsh.
Two years on though, today (Sunday 26th May 2024) sees another last day of operation for Leas Road garage after reaching its 92nd birthday. Vehicles are being squeezed in at Peasmarsh further along the River Wey, around three miles to the south, with control functions moving to Guildford Bus Station. I understand that maintenance of double deck vehicles will now have to be carried out at Aldershot though, due to the aforementioned height of the Peasmarsh workshop. It has been reported on the ‘Stagecoach in Guildford Fleet News’ Facebook page that Trident 18516 (GX06 DXP) was the last bus to pass through the gates of Leas Road late this evening, hot on the heels of Enviro 200 36176 (KX60 DUH) which quickly popped in to refuel – judging by the tracking on BusTimes.org – between its round trips on the 22:30 route 7 and 22:55 route 6 circulars. If you visit that Facebook page then you can find some videos taken from inside the depot documenting some of the moving out process today.
I’ll close this post off with a couple of my phone snaps – the first showing Leas Road under the control of Arriva taken on 3rd November 2013, and the second showing the scene earlier this evening. Note the Owen & Isherwood ‘For Sale/To Let’ sign attached to the fence to the right of the gates. At the back of a queue of four Enviros is 36437 (GX61 AYS), which according to BusTimes.org tracking appears to have been making a pit stop – presumably all trying to use up the remaining fuel supply – between journeys after arriving on the 18:15 Alton to Guildford route 65 (whose brand new Sunday service launched today) and heading back out on the 20:45 Guildford to Cranleigh route 53.
EDIT 27/05/2024: There was a report that a single deck Enviro was spotted at the depot today. I’m told that this was due to there still being some fuel remaining in the depot’s tank last night, so some refuelling was undertaken at Leas Road today to use up that leftover fuel.
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